1. Overview of Beryllium Applications in ITER and Role of IBMC
A. René Raffray and Russell Eaton
Workshop on Beryllium Applications and Health & Safety Aspects for ITER
ITER Organization
June 28, 2017
The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the ITER Organization

2. Outline ITER Background and Status
Beryllium Components - First Wall Panels
Other Beryllium Components
Beryllium Management

3. ITER – Blanket First Wall Panels (Be)

4. ITER Blanket Louis Nicolas Vauquelin
The Blanket directly faces the plasma and covers an area of about 620 m2.
Up to 736 MW of power to be removed for the Blanket.
Inlet cooling water conditions: 4 MPa, 70 C (3140 kg/s)
Blanket designed to be replaced by Remote Handling tools
“Quality Class 1” component; this means it has to be manufactured according to the highest quality standard
The Blanket First Wall is armored with Beryllium
Louis Nicolas Vauquelin
(Discovered beryllium in 1798)

5. ITER Blanket System Main functions: ~850 – 1240 mm Blanket Module
Exhaust the majority of the plasma power.
Contribute in providing neutron shielding to superconducting coils.
Provide limiting surfaces that define the plasma boundary during startup and shutdown.
Provide passage for and accommodate interface requirements of the plasma diagnostics
~850 – 1240 mm
Blanket Module
~1240 – 2000 mm
Blanket connections
Pads
Shield Block
First Wall panel
Electrical straps
Blanket Manifolds
Flexible cartridges
100%
50%
50%
10%
40%
50%
100%

6. Heat Flux on the ITER Blanket System
Space shuttle
(re-entry)
500 kW/m2
Summer sunny day
1 kW/m2
Facing the plasma  High heat Fluxes
ITER Blanket
5,000 kW/m2

7. Beryllium Armour for First Wall
Plasma-facing material (PFM) shall address plasma compatibility, tritium retention, and heat removal capability
Beryllium is considered as PFM for the ITER First Wall since the beginning of the ITER Engineering Design Activity phase in 1994 for the following main reasons:
Oxygen gettering capability
Low atomic number
Absence of chemical sputtering
High thermal conductivity
Current design:
- Thickness of tiles 8-10 mm,
Various tile sizes (e.g. 12x12 mm, 25x25mm, 50x50mm)
Total amount of beryllium:
Net weight ~12 tons
Blanket module
Normal heat flux panels designed to 2 MW/m²
Enhanced heat flux panels designed to 4.7 MW/m²

8. Selection of Beryllium Grades for the ITER First Wall
Beryllium grades differ with regard to the impurity levels, grain size, methods of production and thermo-mechanical treatments.
Materials shall have appropriate and sufficiently characterized properties for all the foreseeable operating conditions during the scheduled lifetime (taking into account changes of material properties during manufacturing cycle and during operation).
Material compositions shall follow As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) requirements on radiation protection (maximum uranium content is wt.% to limit the impurity content of alpha emitter radionuclides) .
Source:

9. Beryllium Grades and Qualification Program
A qualification program was established to characterize beryllium grades:
Composition requirements (BeO, U impurity, etc.).
Main physical and mechanical properties
Thermal performance (thermal shock, fatigue, VDE)
The following beryllium materials have been qualified for ITER application:
S-65 Vacuum Hot Pressed (VHP) from Materion Brush (USA)
DSHG-200 from the Russian Federation
TGP-56FW from the Russian Federation
CN-G01 from China
These grades have been selected based on excellent thermal fatigue and thermal shock behaviour, high ductility, low impurity content, and an available comprehensive data base (including neutron irradiation effects).
More detail in article
in Physica Scripta T145 (2011)

10. Blanket First Wall
First Wall Semi-Prototype completed in EU, RF and CN Domestic Agencies
Enhanced Heat Flux Panel prior to testing
Enhanced Heat Flux Panel, tested at:
4.7 MW/m2 for 7500 cycles
5.9 MW/m2 for 1500 cycles
Normal Heat Flux Panel, tested at:
2 MW/m2 for 7500 cycles
2.5 MW/m2 for 1500 cycles

11. Other ITER Components Using Beryllium
ICRH
Blanket FW
About 12,000 kg
TBM
100 – 200 kg of beryllium pebbles used as n-multiplier
Faraday Shields - 40 kg of beryllium
Diagnostic
Systems
RF Windows

12. ITER – Be Management

13. Managing Beryllium Activities at ITER
Beryllium is classified as a carcinogenic in France. Therefore, measures, systems and actions shall be implemented to control exposures of workers and prevent any exposure to operators and the public. Safety is a permanent priority in the ITER Program.
In accordance with Article 14 of the ITER Agreement, the ITER Organization shall observe French Legislation and regulations as regards (amongst others) health and safety at work.
The initial step in managing beryllium was the formation of the ITER Beryllium Management Committee (IBMC) in 2015.
The IBMC comprises stakeholders from both IO-CT and Domestic Agencies
Typically 2 main meetings are planned/held each year while other dedicated meetings are called on an as needed basis to address specific issues.
Objectives of the IBMC
Overall supervision of the applicable legislation and regulations
Identification of all activities involving beryllium
Identification of best practice safety standards
Prepare Incident responses procedures for onsite and offsite activities.
Implementation and coordination of the activities

14. Managing Beryllium Activities at ITER
Activities in progress:
Generation of the Document Breakdown Structure.
Production of procedures.
Production of ITER Beryllium Management Plan (Beryllium Code of Practice).
Production of guidance for IO staff visiting beryllium facilities.
Identification of beryllium components and production of lifecycle documentation.
Implementation of beryllium worker and follow up process.
Development and implementation of beryllium training program.
Technical activities:
Understanding of typical surface contamination levels
Cleaning techniques for First Wall components
Storage/packaging conditions for beryllium components
Smearing and analysis of beryllium components
Beryllium awareness - Introduction to working with beryllium

15. IBMC Document Breakdown Structure

16. IBMC Activities – 2017 Focus
Main Activities pursued in the first half of 2017.
Setting up the ITER Beryllium Worker Capture Process and Training Program
Preparation of this Workshop on Beryllium Applications and Health & Safety

17. ITER Beryllium Worker Training Program (1)
Training program prepared.
First training program delivered by a combination of UKAEA and IO colleagues at CCFE for 4 IO staff members.
Approach taken to training considering the beryllium risk
Phase 1 Beryllium activities - Offsite manufacturing follow up of beryllium component and material suppliers.
Phase 2 Beryllium activities - Onsite non activated beryllium. First delivery of beryllium to site and non-active operations.
Phase 3 Beryllium activities - Onsite activated beryllium. Beryllium will be treated as a radiological material.
The training program will need to be revised prior to each of the phases 2 & 3 to take into account the development of local operating procedures.

18. ITER Beryllium Worker Training Program (2)
The training comprises:
Session 1 – A presentation on aspects of beryllium safety, including Health and Safety, external site visits to beryllium suppliers and general good beryllium practices taken from other external operational facilities.
Session 2 – Respiratory mask fit test.
Session 3 - Personal Air Sampler (PAS) training.
Session 4 - A short multiple question assessment to confirm the transfer of knowledge from trainer to trainee, and a means by which to assess the suitability of the training program.
Session 5 – Simulate entry/exit operation into/from a beryllium area to demonstrate the practices required to enter/exit and operate in these areas safely.
Session 6 – Incident Response: simulate rescue of a beryllium worker in a beryllium area. (will not be introduced until phase 2)
To obtain the status of ITER Beryllium Worker, the
IO staff must have passed the medical examination
and successfully completed the training
Four first Beryllium Workers certified at IO
More details in M. Gilardi’s presentation

19. Beryllium Support Contract
Contract placed with UKAEA, includes:
Cleaning of Be mock ups
To find a standard efficient cleaning method
Storage activities
To confirm the optimal storage conditions and validate no evolution of surface contamination for FW storage
Support to IBMC (code of practice/training)
Priority to prepare the Be training program for IO
Provision of PAS for IO/DA/Suppliers use
10 units purchased, IO staff will use when making visits to beryllium facilities
Can be available to support DAs activities
Smearing/analysis activities
Can be available to support DAs activities, provision of smears, analysis of smears by CCFE
Be audit/information exchange.
Support to develop and carry out beryllium training for IO staff.

20. Beryllium Information Exchange
First opportunity was with SWIP (Oct 2016)
IO can support (via UKAEA specialists) beryllium-related meetings with other FW providers suppliers if requested.
More details in Wang Pinghuai’s presentation.

21. Summary
ITER will have several beryllium components, and in particular the First Wall panels with ~12 tons of Be.
The IBMC was created to manage the safety aspects of beryllium.
Substantial progress has been achieved in the last year and a half in terms of documentation, training, safety culture, enhanced visibility in the project.
We would like to take this opportunity to discuss with experts in the beryllium area and we welcome your feedback.
However, much work still needs to be done and we need a beryllium specialist to help us tackle the many tasks ahead.

22. ITER Project Associate (IPA) for Beryllium Activities
A beryllium specialist is required to support the IO for ongoing beryllium activities offsite and in readiness for delivery of beryllium components to site.
Experience in occupational hygiene and in beryllium management needed:
to directly support the ITER Beryllium Management Committee (IBMC) activities in developing a beryllium safety program and ensuring its ongoing effectiveness to deliver the safe working environment demanded by all stakeholders; and
to support the follow up of PAs on beryllium components (and in particular on the Blanket First Wall).
More details at: (Ref. IPA/2017/023/TED)
The IPA position is for one year and renewable up to four years.
Please let us know if you know a good candidate who fits the bill.
The indicated application deadline is July 14, 2017 but the posting can be extended if a good candidate does not apply by then.
You can contact me if you are interested in obtaining more information on this.

23. Rain or shine or lightning storm, ITER is moving forward!